Finally! We are extremely proud and honored to announce that the Selaxon Lutberg + Subinterior The Meeting 12″ 2xLP is now available for preorder in our webshop! The Meeting chronicles a 4-part mini series of collaborations between these two Italian ambient artists composed over about a 2 1/2 year span. Originally released separately as 3″ CD-R editions limited to 50 copies on Selaxon Lutberg’s own label, Cold Current Productions, we found this to be too good to be heard by so few people and limited to the CD-R format. So, we are proud to be working with Denovali Records of Germany to finally make these releases available as one glorious vinyl 2xLP set, mastered specifically for vinyl by Andrea Marutti of Amon, Sil Muir, and many others, who is also the owner of Afe Records and Lips Vago Digital Studio. Each part of The Meeting is dedicated to a season and is given one side of 12″ vinyl, starting with Winter Meeting and going through the seasons in order to end with Fall Meeting. The sound on each part is slightly different and is reflective of the mood or feel of its respective season, ranging from cold, icy textures to warm soothing ambience. In order to properly honor this release and do it justice, this special 2xLP set will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl housed in thick, sturdy gatefold jackets with printed inner sleeves for the records, as is shown in the image above. This will be strictly limited to a total number of 500 copies in two different editions: 300 copies on classic black vinyl and 200 copies on a special clear/grey mix, shown in the image above. We expect to have these in stock and ready to ship by mid February!

8 of the 12 tracks can be heard here. Please visit our webshop to place a preorder for this release. If you are a European customer, unless you are ordering other items from our webshop in addition to this release, we suggest that you preorder from Denovali Records in Germany. After the preorder is over, we will be raising the price of these by $2, so order now and save a little  money!

Greetings, all! We hope everyone is having a good holiday celebration and enjoying time with family and friends! Breaking our relative silence of the Autumn, here is a webshop update for the holidays:

CD/CD-R:

Ishai Adar - Beaufort - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD (Ak Duck, 2007) - excellent soundtrack to the award-winning Israeli war film. Fantastic, expressive, emotive elctronic music for fans of Phillip Jeck, Biosphere, and William Basinski - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Maor Appelbaum + Hollowing - Collaborating Torture CD (Heart & Crossbone Records/Topheth Prophet, 2008) - collaborative blackened ambient/industrial music

Archgoat - Whore of Bethlehem CD (Hammer of Hate, 2006) - classic 2006 comeback album of this Finnish bestial black metal band

Forteresse - Métal Noir Québécois CD (Sepulchral Productions, 2006) - debut album of raw, epic, and patriotic black metal honoring Québec’s history and culture - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Gris - Il Était une Forêt… CD (Sepulchral Productions, 2007) - emotional, atmospheric black metal for fans of Xasthur, Summoning, and Alcest

Herem - Pulsa diNura CD (Rusty Crowbar Records, 2008) - interesting mix of melodic death/doom and stoner doom from Finland

The Pistil Cosmos - A Long Figure in a Dreamlike Place CD-R (Thor’s Rubber Hammer Productions, 2009) - misty, dreamlike bedroom ambient/noise music for fans of We Wait for the Snow, Grouper, Fabio Orsi, and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Cassette:

Ives - Burial of the Modernized Soulless Tape (self-released, 2009) - raw, thrashing black metal/punk for fans of Darkthrone, Bone Awl, Beherit, Amebix, and Discharge

As always, please visit our webshop for more information on each release, cover art, links to hear samples, and to place an order. If you have any questions, issues, or concerns, we’re always here to help - just email us at murkhouserecordings@gmail.com. Thanks!

Today, we are extremely honored to announce the forthcoming release of the new Elegi album, titled Bånsull, to be released on Murkhouse Recordings in Spring of 2010! Bånsull is a short break and a slight departure from the trilogy of albums being done for Miasmah Recordings (of which the first two albums are currently available). Based around the loose theme of horror stories, the album contains the signature Elegi style, full of weird noises and dank atmospheres, but is dark and scary in a completely different way. The album itself can be thought of as a book of short stories, with each track being a different haunting tale. You can read more about the album on our myspace profile, where you can also hear one track from it, titled “Fordum,” in our player. We are currently working on a special limited edition of the album which will be presented in unique packaging to fit the horror story/book theme that Tommy Jansen (the man behind Elegi) had in mind for this. More details on this soon. Get ready for your childhood fears to be reawakened.

Also, expect some slight changes/updates to the website to be made soon. We’re still growing and evolving and, as such, we’ve got a few necessary alterations to do so the website can be made better. Nothing major, so don’t have a freak out!

Lastly, we’ll be updating the webshop soon with some new obscurities and curiosities from around the world. We’re just waiting on a few more items, then we’ll add everything in one medium-sized update.

As always, thanks for reading! Keep watching this space!

We’ve added a new press page to our website where we have posted links to all Murkhouse interviews and reviews that are available online. We’ve added a few new reviews that weren’t on the site before and have also grouped them according to language under their respective artists. Take a look at the page, read some reviews that you haven’t seen before, and feel free to shoot us an email at murkhouserecordings [AT] gmail [DOT] com if you notice any problems.

Also, in celebration of America’s Independence Day, we’re away starting today (July 1st) until Monday, July 6th. Any orders placed in the webshop during that time will be mailed out upon our return. The webshop is still up and functioning and we’ll be able to respond to any emails we get regarding orders, we just won’t be able to mail them out until we return to home base. Thanks for your understanding, and feel free to contact us with any questions!

Hello to all. Went to go see the very last Romance of Young Tigers shows last week at Blind Bob’s in Dayton, OH. Really sad that they’re breaking up, but the show was incredible. They’ve still got a couple things that are yet to be released. We will be getting some copies of their live CD-R that will be released by Allergic to Fun.

Anyway, on to business. Sorry for the long silence. We’ve had a lot of things going on behind the scenes over the past months. We relocated for the summer, have been working on the details of some releases to be pressed soon, and have also been planning some stuff for later on down the line. We’ve also been working on finishing up the layout for the Murkhouse feature that will be included in the next issue of Bad Acid magazine along with the Murkhouse sampler we’ve assemble for the mag. More on that soon. We have added quite an amount of new items to the shop over the past weeks, though, and here it is assembled in one list:

CD/CD-R:

Aalto – Aalto CD-R (Centre of Wood, 2008) – mysterious folk music from the forests of Finland

Maurizio Bianchi & Sparkle in Grey – Nefelodhis CD (Cold Current Production/Musica di un Certo Livello, 2007) – collaborative album between this Italian pioneer of noise music and the Italian experimental post-rock band

Bohemian Grove – Age of Retrogression CD (Hyperblasted Recordings, 2008) – epic, modern black metal from Greece

Celeste – Nihiliste(s) CD (Denovali Records/Sons of Vista, 2008) – filthy sludge/hardcore meets black metal by this French horde

The Coma Lilies – Memento Mori CD EP (Denovali Records, 2008) – epic and gorgeous instrumental art rock (?) – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Corpoparassita – Inesorabile CD (Final Muzik, 2007) – oppressively dark ambient/industrial music from Italy – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Dhul-Qarnayn – Jilwah CD Single (Shaytan Productions, 2008) – one half-hour track of mysterious middle-eastern folk/ambient from Bahrain

Kraken – Kraken CD EP (D7i Records, 2007) - 3 guitar assault of sludge/punk/hardcore from Quebec

Líam – Journey… Two Years and a Fragment CD (Pest Productions, 2008) – post-rock meets black metal and funeral doom from this German band

Mariae Nascenti – Raise Your Paw to the Sky and Break the Truce CD (Final Muzik, 2007) – experimental emotional music from Italy, including a great cover of Slowdive’s “Dagger”

Milanku – Convalescence CD (D7i Records/Le Tigre Records, 2007) – heavy, emotional, and sludgey post-hardcore/post-rock from Quebec – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Phoenix Bodies – Too Much Information CD+DVD (Shove Records, 2008) - 2-disc set containing early recordings and live performances of this chaotic hardcore band from Indiana

Teho Teardo – Tower/Microphone CD (Final Muzik, 2005) – ambient album including material originally commissioned by the Italian contemporary art festival Hic et Nunc in 2005

Vinyl:

Un Quarto Morto – Annusarsi, Scegliersi, Lamentarsi 7” LP (DIY Conspiracy, 2008) – 9-track 7” of fast and aggressive Italian hardcore/punk, including a Nerorgasmo cover

Cassette:

Vomikaust – Filth Demo Tape (self-released, 2009) – raw and crusty blackened thrash metal from Florida

As usual, we’ve got cover art, full reviews, and links to hear samples for all of these in our webshop. If you have any questions, email us at murkhouserecordings@gmail.com. We’ve got a lot more items coming to add soon!

Thanks for reading!

A few new items have been added to the webshop:

Antilles - Antilles CD-R EP (Kid Sister Everything, 2009)
Selaxon Lutberg - Margini CD-R (Opaco Records, 2009)
Vanessa Van Basten - Psygnosis CD EP (Consouling Sounds, 2009) - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Blueneck - Scars of the Midwest 12″ LP (Denovali Records, 2008)

Lots more to be added soon….

The fine folks at Strangeglue have included the Gathiens track “Connectango” on an online post rock sampler that they have put together. There are some sounds at the start of the track that carry over from the track before on the sampler. Just to let everyone know, that heartbeat-like sound is not on the album version of the song. The sampler is about an hour long, contains 9 tracks of post rock and related music from around the world, and is available for free download here.  There’s some nice music on it and it is definitely worth checking out! We have also added a couple more Gathiens reviews - links can be found on the releases page under the Gathiens album.

Murkhouse Recordings will no longer be releasing the Black Math Horseman Wyllt LP. The band has been picked up by none other than Tee Pee Records, who will be releasing the album on CD and vinyl in North America. Congratulations to Black Math Horseman on getting picked up by such a great label - all the best! Discussions have already begun between Black Math Horseman and Murkhouse Recordings for us to work together on another release in the future. Also, be sure to check the band out at this year’s SxSW!

Lastly, we’re pleased to announce that Denovali Records of Germany will now be working with us to co-release The Meeting 2xLP by Selaxon Lutberg + Subinterior. More information about the release as well as an audio sample of one of the songs from it can be found on our myspace page.

Keep checing back for updates. We have some more news coming soon as well as a webstore update to make. As always, thanks for reading!

We’ve had some more Gathiens and Vaka reviews roll in and have added them to the releases page under the respective albums. Gathiens reviews that have come in are from:

MUSICSCAN (German) - 7/10 - “…complex and intriguing…”
w-fenec.org (French) - “…an album of incredible elegant artistic maturity.”
hardsounds.it (Italian) - 68/100
hARTboiled (English) - “For all postrock fans who like some diversity and quality.”

Vaka album reviews that have come in (the one from I’m the Most Important Fucking Person in the World is quite in-depth and humorous):

MUSICSCAN (German) - 8/10 - “…an incredibly detailed and complex debut album.”
Organ Magazine (English) - “…intense, adventurous, rewarding and very very heavy.”
w-fenec.org (French) - “…Kappa Delta Phi is a majestic album that reveals itself in layers.”
I’m the Most Important Fucking Person in the World (English) - “…one of the best records of this genre that I’ve heard in a long time.”

Release news regarding Black Math Horseman, Elegi, and Selaxon Lutberg + Subinterior coming soon. Stay tuned.

Yesterday was the European release date for the CD version of Vaka’s Kappa Delta Phi as well as the worldwide release date of the album in it’s digital downloadable format. As last tuesday was the release date for the album in North America and the rest of the world, it is now available worldwide! Inquire at your local record store about getting a copy, or just place an order directly from us!

Also, we have updated our releases page by adding links to read reviews under each release. We’ll continue to add them as reviews roll in. The latest review we’ve received was for Vaka’s Kappa Delta Phi CD, reviewed in English by the site DisAgreement Online. They gave the album quite a positive review and scored it 9/10! Read the review here.

As always, keep checking back for updates - more soon!

As of yesterday, the Gathiens album has been released worldwide on CD and through digital download sites. If your local shop doesn’t have it in, see if you can order it. If they can’t order it, get it from us! Also, the Vaka CD was released yesterday in North America and will be released next Monday (the 26th) in Europe on CD and worldwide digitally. To celebrate, how about a webshop update?!?!?! New arrivals are listed below. As always, mosey on over to the webshop to read full descriptions, find links to hear samples, and to place an order.

Chartreuse - No More Paths to Sounder Sleep CD (Thor’s Rubber Hammer Productions, 2008)

Long Legged Woman - Newtown Nights CD-R (Thor’s Rubber Hammer Productions, 2008)

Sink - The Process CD (Kaos Kontrol/Kult of Nihilow, 2008)

Subinterior - Mesmerize CD-R (Afe Records, 2008)

Oiltanker - s/t 7″ EP (Bullshit Propaganda/Spicy Soup Productions, 2008)

More stuff is on it’s way; we’ll post another update in another few weeks or so. Thanks!